Jean-Pierre Girerd

(b. 1931, Algeria/Canada)

On a volé la Coupe Stanley

Jean-Pierre Girerd is a Canadian caricaturist, illustrator and painter, best known as the editorial cartoonist for the Montréal-based newspaper La Presse from 1968 to 1995. Girerd was born in Alger, Algeria, where he attended the School of Fine Arts. He began his career making illustrations for Le Journal d'Alger.

He headed for the United States during the Algerian War, where he found employment as a press artist with a local Minneapolis paper. It was during his US period that he developed himself as a political caricaturist in the tradition of Honoré Daumier.

He settled in Montréal, Canada, in 1964. He contributed caricatures to Métro Express, Le Petit Journal and Le Travail, before beginning his long collaboration with La Presse. Girerd's caricatures mostly dealt with local and national politics, and among his favorite subjects were mayor Jean Drapeau and Canadian prime minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau.

From 16 August 1975 to 19 June 1976 he also had a comic strip running in La Presse's comics section, called 'On a volé la Coupe Stanley', dealing with the trophy awarded every year to the North-American professionnal hockey champion team. The story was subsequently published in book format by Les Éditions Mirabel. After his retirement from La Presse, Girard spent another year making caricatures for L'Itinéraire, before devoting all his time to painting.